The first fourth of this book is pretty boring, but then something big happens and things liven up so that it ends up being a first class thriller.

In the book, the US President and Russia’s Gorbachev are about to sign a disarmament treaty that has conservative hard liners TICKED -- enough to do serious damage to derail this treaty and see it go away. And so the president's son is kidnapped over in England. The White House calls in the best hostage negotiator in the world, a retired commando named Quinn, who agrees to do it only if he can do it his way. They reluctantly agree and then start breaking their agreement almost from the beginning.

The first 100 pages or so of the book is a set up leading to this moment. The next, I don't know how many, numerous pages are of Quinn and the hostage taker negotiating and it's excruciating. Truly boring. But necessary to the plot and I understand that. So when, halfway through the book, the president's son is set free, I wondered what Forsyth was going to do to fill up the rest of the pages. Only to see this kid get blown sky high just as he's wandering back to the good guys. Wow! Did not see that coming. Suspicion falls on Quinn, of all people, and he takes off to Europe with Sam, his female FBI lover, to chase after the hostage takers, all of whom are being taken out before he reaches them. But how? And by whom? Something's not right and he has to get to the bottom of it. It turns into a real page turner and I've got to say, I was not disappointed. I tend to love Forsyth books, even with all of the detail. So, recommended. ( )

From Publishers Weekly
The reader almost despairs of a story getting under way in Forsyth's latest: the situation takes so long to set up, and is mired in such wearisome detail. Finally, after it has been made clear that both a renegade Soviet military group and a fanatical Texan oil baron plan to take over an oil-rich Middle Eastern state for their different twisted reasons, the action begins. The son of the American president (who is about to sign a major arms agreement with Gorbachev himself) is kidnapped, and, despite the best efforts of Quinn, the negotiator, is killed at the very moment of his ransoming. The president is stricken, a takeover of the U.S. government looms, and it looks as if the treaty is doomed. Now it is up to Quinn to find out who was behind the crime, and why. With a plucky and pretty female FBI agent, he scours obscure corners of northern Europe for the perpetrators--always to find them dead just as he arrives. In a cliffhanger of a conclusion, he brings the guilt home to Washington, the president perks up and the world is saved. As always, Forsyth is good at the details (you learn more about Dutch and Belgian road maps than you probably ever wanted to know), keeps a few surprises up his sleeve and writes action scenes more crisply, and with less gore, than Ludlum. But his characterization is flat, and much of The Negotiator is terribly familiar. By far the best parts are the negotiations for the ransoming of the president's son, which generate real tension. BOMC main selection. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Forsyth gives us all we ask for."--_Chicago Tribune_.
"Forsyth at the top of his game!"--Tom Clancy, author of The Hunt For Red October.
"A Blockbuster."--_New York Daily News_.
"A completely satisfying thriller. . . _The Negotiator_ delivers. . . A string of unsettling climaxes."--_Newsweek_. ( )

Wikipedia in English

Frederick Forsyth, master of the international thriller, retums with an electrifying story of a man of immense power and a conspiracy to crush the President of the United States. Only one man--Forsyth's most unforgettable hero yet--can prevent the plan from succeeding. His name is Quinn. He is the Negotiator.President Cormack is bent on a signing a sweeping U.S.-Soviet disarmament treaty, and the master conspirator is determined to stop him. The kidnapping of a young man on a country road in Oxfordshire is but the first brutal step in the explosive plot engineer the president's destruction. Enter Quinn. Quinn plays the kidnappers like a master musician. . . until, in a shocking tumabout, he discovers that ransom was not their objection after all--and that he has been lured into a cunningly woven web. Now he must draw upon his deepest strengths--to save not only the victim but the entire free world.

The U.S. President is poised to sign a major disarmament treaty with the Soviets. But a foul plot is out to prevent the agreement. When a young man is kidnapped on an Oxford country road, Quinn steps in to negotiate. Plots within plots boil and bubble, and Quinn discovers he must save not only the victim but the entire free world.… (more)